The 22-year-old Sofia Vergara was hired by Univision as a big host in 1994 when she was just 22 years old. She became well-known in Miami as a result of the show, but she was unable to secure representation.
‘I signed my first contract when I was really young, and I did it myself,’ Vergara explains. This kind of management didn’t exist for me because of my ethnicity,” she says. Not on television, at least not for Latina musicians.
It’s obvious that things have shifted. Vergara has led the Forbes list for seven years in a row as the highest-paid female actor in the world, raking in $43 million last year from her role as Gloria Pritchett on Modern Family. Besides being a judge on America’s Got Talent, she has a multi-faceted business empire that includes furniture collections, fragrances, and clothing lines. While Vergara is a little apprehensive about publicly acknowledging her money, she is more than happy to talk about her hard-earned (and rising) business endeavors.
It’s an honor to be ranked by Forbes, she tells us. However, she laughs as she adds, “Don’t forget that I have to pay awful taxes as well. I feel a bit exaggerated.” I usually answer, ‘No, I don’t have as much money as you believe I have,’ whenever someone says, “Oh, my God, you have so much money.” Uncle Sam is going to fucking eat me alive! Managers, too! Lawyers, too! Then there are the agents!”
As the star of “Modern Family,” Vergara earned an estimated $500,000 per episode in the show’s final seasons, but the bulk of her earnings come from her businesses and brand arrangements. According to her, “I’ve made a lot through endorsements and being a spokesman. There are a lot of them, and they’ve given me a lot of money.”
Using her broadcast television platform, Vergara has been able to connect with her followers and turn them into dedicated customers who buy her products, including her most recent Walmart venture, a size-inclusive jeans line. This comes after she ended a four-year contract with Kmart in 2015.
Her confidence in her global entrepreneur status is refreshing at a time when the fight for equity in Hollywood endures, especially for female actors of color who are the most underpaid in the business, statistically speaking.
When it comes to negotiating, I think women have a fear of losing their edge. As Vergara puts it, “Someone will spend that money, and someone willtake money… and it needs to be you.” ”I’ve always found it to be effective.”
Vergara, who dropped out of dental school in Colombia to pursue a career in acting and modeling, never dreamed of becoming a global sensation. Because she was a young single mother trying to make ends meet while also taking care of her big extended family, she was driven to persevere.
She explains, “I wanted to be my own person.” In my opinion, money isn’t everything, but it may alleviate some of the stress and pressure so that you can focus on other things. As a person who has always desired to be worry-free, I don’t think it’s possible when you’re concerned about making the rent.
Latino inclusion in the entertainment industry is still an issue, but Vergara realized decades ago that the Spanish-speaking market is extremely lucrative.
